Relationships among general health, job satisfaction, work engagement and job features in nurses working in a public hospital: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Aim and objective:To describe relations among health, job satisfaction, work engagement and job features in Spanish nurses working in a public hospital.Background: It has been established that nursing staff health affects the quality of their work and is associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and different job features. Understanding the relationships among these variables could provide useful information to improve staff performance and prevent work-related illnesses. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational and comparative study was performed between January-April 2016. This research adheres to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guideline. Methods: A total of 926 nurses were requested to complete an online questionnaire. Nurses on sick leave or in period of unpaid leave during data collection were excluded. The final study population reached 392 nurses. The online survey was fully completed by 373 nurses. General health, job satisfaction and work engagement were measured. Tools used were as follows: sociodemographic questions, the General Health Questionnaire, the Overall Job Satisfaction Scale and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.Results: Significant correlations among general health, job satisfaction and work engagement were found. Specifically, general health levels were negatively correlated with job satisfaction and work engagement subscales. Job features with influence on these constructs were the type of shift, type of contract, type of service, salary, type of continuous formation and having a specialty/profile. Conclusions:Our results indicate that job-related features affect job satisfaction, general health and work engagement. The organisation should make interventions over these features to increase job satisfaction and work engagement levels, since they are relevant for nursing staff health and patient security.Relevance to clinical practice: The analysis of the relationships among general health, job satisfaction, work engagement and job features in nurses could offer a basis to design preventive programmes to improve staff performance and prevent work-related illnesses.

Relationship Between Work Engagement, Psychosocial Risks, and Mental Health Among Spanish Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…More than 30% of respondents claimed to have experienced feelings of engagement every day, as compared to < 2% who reported these feelings once a year or less. The total results showed similarities with some previous studies on nurses working in Spanish public hospitals (31), and very close to the work engagement levels found by Schaufeli and Bakker (32) in 2004 in their study on Belgian and Dutch professionals of different fields, with a mean total score of 4.3. In a study on 980 nurses from eight hospitals in Saudi Arabia (20), despite having a total UWES score of 4.1, it was observed that, in the dedication sub-dimension, a score had been obtained fairly higher than in the other two (dedication: 4.6; absorption: 3.9; vigor: 4), being observed in the studies by Aboshaiqah et al (21), Othman et al (33), and Wan et al (34), and in the present study sample.…”

“…Internationally, it has been observed, in a study (35) conducted in the city of Sao José do Rio Preto (São Paulo, Brazil) on 75 PC nurses, that vigor levels were slightly above the dedication levels, 5.2 vs. 5.3, respectively. At the national level, something similar happens with the study (31) carried out in the northeast of Spain on a sample of 373 nurses from the hospital field, where higher mean scores were observed for the vigor subscale 4.68 (SD = 1.07) than dedication 4.61 (SD = 1.37) and absorption scores 4.34 (SD = 1.24). The literature notes that levels of commitment (in their different dimensions) are influenced by sex, work service, educational level, and type of occupation (31,34).…”

“…At the national level, something similar happens with the study (31) carried out in the northeast of Spain on a sample of 373 nurses from the hospital field, where higher mean scores were observed for the vigor subscale 4.68 (SD = 1.07) than dedication 4.61 (SD = 1.37) and absorption scores 4.34 (SD = 1.24). The literature notes that levels of commitment (in their different dimensions) are influenced by sex, work service, educational level, and type of occupation (31,34). As other authors indicate, the type of service appears to influence the three dimensions of the UWES scale.…”

“…This fact shows that Spanish nurses may have an increased risk of mental health problems, as compared to the general Spanish population (39). In addition, there are variables that can increase this risk such as being a woman, young (31), having a mediocre or poor perception of health, having low work commitment (34), and working in services with a high level of stress, as is the case of emergency services. By services, there have been differences of more than one point in the GHQ-12 among nurses working in PC = 2.94 (SD = 3.41), as compared to those working in emergency services 4.17 (SD = 3.79).…”

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices related to standard precautions among nurses: A comparative study

“…In this study, 357 nurses (237 Chinese nurses and 120 Ethiopian nurses) were enrolled. We considered a 95% confidence level, an accuracy of 0.3 and a standard deviation of 3 (González-Gancedo, Fernández-Martínez, & Rodríguez-Borrego, 2019). A nonresponse rate of 10% was factored.…”